
Gass ^^ 



61sT Congress ^ 
2d Session J 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



/ Document 
I No. 990 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 

BULLETIN 50 



C5 



PRELIMIMRY REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE ^4 
MYAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT 
ARIZONA 



BY 



JESSE WALTER FEWKES 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1911 



I 










KIT 



BULLETIN 50. PLATE 1 







61sT Congress I HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES I ^-S'^'' oo^ 

Sd Session J \ No. 990 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 

BULLETIN 50 



PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE 

NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT 

ARIZONA 

BY 

JESSE WALTER FEWKES 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
.. 1911 



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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



Smithsonian Institution, 
Bureau of American Ethnology, 

WasUngton, D. C, March 16, 1910, 
Sm: I have the honor to submit herewith, for publication, with 
your approval, as Bulletin 50 of this Bureau, the manuscript of a 
paper by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, entitled ^'Preliminary Report 
on a Visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona." 
Yours, respectfully, 

F. W. Hodge, 
Ethnologist in Charge. 
Dr. Charles D. Walcott, 

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

Washington, D. C. 

Ill 



CONTENTS 



Page 

Introduction 1 

Routes to the Navaho National Monument 6 

Route from Flagstaff to Marsh pass 6 

Major antiquities 10 

Ruin A 10 

Cliff-house B 10 

Swallows Nest 12 

Betatakin 12 

Kitsiel (Keet Seel) 16 

Scaffold House 18 

Cradle House 20 

Ladder House 20 

Forest-glen House 21 

Pine-tree House 21 

Trickling-spring House 21 

Characteristic features of ruins 22 

Minor antiquities 26 

Pottery 27 

Cliff-dwellers cradle 29 

Miscellaneous objects 30 

Summary and conclusions 30 

Recommendations 35 

V 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Plate 1. Kitsiel Frontispiece 

2^ Inscription House 1 

3." Wukoki ruin at Black Falls 2 

4. Ruin A, southwest of Marsh pass 4 

5. Ruin B, at Marsh pass 7 

6/ View into Laguna canyon from Marsh pass 9 

1i Swallows Nest 10 

8; Betatakin — general view 13 

9. Betatakin — western end 14 

10; Ground plan of Betatakin 14 

11. Betatakin — central part 17 

12. Pictographs at Betatakin 18 

13. Ground plan of Kitsiel (Keet Seel) ruin 21 

14. Diagrams showing kiva roof construction 23 

15. Pottery from Navaho National Monument 24 

16. Pottery from Navaho National Monument 26 

17. Pottery and stone implements from Navaho National Monument 28 

18'/ Pottery from Navaho National Monument 30 

19 . Cliff-dwellers cradle— front 32 

20. Cliff-dwellers cradle — rear 32 

21. Cliff-dwellers cradle— side 32 

22if Sketch map of the Navaho National Monument 34 

Figure 1. Scaffold of Scaffold House 18 

2. Ground plan of Trickling-spring House 22 

3. Design on cliff-dwellers cradle 29 

VII 



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PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE NAVAHO NATIONAL 
MONUMENT, ARIZONA 



By Jesse Walter Fewkes 



INTRODUCTION 

On the completion of the work of excavation and repair of CUff 
Palace, in the Mesa Verde National Park, in southern Colorado, in 
charge of the writer, under the Secretary of the Interior, he was 
instructed by Mr. W. H. Holmes, then Chief of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, to make an archeologic reconnaissance of the 
northern part of Arizona, where a tract of land containing im- 
portant prehistoric ruins had been reserved by the President under 
the name Navaho National Monument. In the following pages are 
considered some of the results of that trip, a more detailed account 
of the ruins being deferred to a future report, after a more extended 
examination shall have been made.'^ Mention is made of a few objects 
collected, and recommendations are submitted for future excavation 
and repair work on these remarkable ruins to preserve them for 
examination by students and tourists. As will appear later, a scien- 
tific study of them is important, for they are connected with Hopi 
pueblos still inhabited, in which are preserved traditions concerning 
the ruins and their ancient inhabitants. 

The present population of Walpi, a Hopi pueblo, is made up of 
descendants of various clans, whose ancestors once lived in distant 
villages, now ruins, situated in various directions from its site on 
the East mesa. One of the problems before the student of the Pueblos 
is to locate accurately the ancestral villages where these clans lived 
in prehistoric times. From an examination of the architecture of 
these villages and a study of the character of secular and cult objects 
found in them, the culture of the clans that inhabited these dwellings 
could be roughly determined. The culture at any epoch in the history 
of the clan being known, data are available that may make possible 
comparison and correlation with that which is still more ancient: 
in other words, that may add a chapter to our knowledge of the 
migrations of the Hopi Indians in prehistoric times. 

a The author's first visit to these ruins was made in September, 1909, and he returned to the work in 
the following May. A few notes made on the latter trip on ruins not observed during the former are 
incorporated in this report. 



2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

The writer has already identified some of the ancient houses of 
those Hopi clans that claim to have dwelt formerly south of Walpi, 
on the Little Colorado near Winslow, but has not investigated the 
ruins to the north, in which once lived the Snake, Horn, and Flute 
clans. An investigation of the origin and migrations of this con- 
tingent is instructive because it is claimed that these clans were 
among the first to arrive at Walpi, or that they united with the 
previously existing Bear clan, forming the nucleus of the population 
of that pueblo. 

A preliminary step in the investigation of the culture of the clans 
that played a most important part in founding Walpi and giving rise 
to the Hopi people would be the identification of the houses (now 
ruins) of the Snake, Horn, and Flute clans, the existence of which 
in the region north of Walpi is known with a greater or less degree of 
certainty from Hopi legends. An archeologic study of these ruins 
and of cult objects found in them would reveal some of the prehis- 
toric features of the culture of the ancient Snake clans. ^^The 
ancient home of my ancestors," said the old Snake chief to the writer, 
''was called Tokonabi,^ which is situated not far from Navaho moun- 
tain. If you go there, you will find ruins of their former houses." 
In previous years the writer had often looked with longing eyes to 
the mountains that formed the Hopi horizon on the north where these 
mysterious homes of the Snake and Flute clans were said to be 
situated, but had never been able to explore them. In 1909 the 
opportunity came to visit this region, and while some of the ruins 
found may not be identifiable with Tokonabi, they were abodes of 
people almost identical in culture with the ancient Snake, Horn, 
and Flute clans of the Hopi. 

References to the northern ruins occur frequently in Hopi legends 
of the Snake and Flute clans, and even accounts of the great natural 
bridges lately seen for the first time by white people were given years 
ago by Hopi familiar with legends of these families. The writer heard 
the Hopi tell of their former homes among the ''high rocks" in the 
north and at Navaho mountain, fifteen years ago, at which time 
they offered to guide him to them. The stories of the great cave- 
ruins to the north were heard even earlier from the Hps of the Hopi 
priests by another observer. Mr. A. M. Stephen, the pioneer in Hopi 
studies, informed the writer that he had learned of great ruins in the 
north as far back as 1885, and Mr. Cosmos Mndeleff, aided by Mr. 
Stephen, published the names of the clans which, according to the 
Hopi, inhabited them. 

a The exact situation of Tokonabi has never been identified by archeologists. Ruins are called by the 
Navaho nasazi bogondi," houses of the nasazi." The name Tokonabi may be derived from Navaho to, 
"water;" ko, contraction of bokho, " canyon;" and the Hopi locative obi, " place of." The derivation from 
Navaho boko, "coal oil," is rejected, since it is very modern. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 




a. FROM THE SOUTH 




l>. FROM THE NORTH 

WUKOKI RUIN AT BLACK FALLS 



FBWKBS] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 6 

Victor Mindeleff '^ summarizes the Hopi traditions concerning To- 
konabi still preserved by the Horn and Flute clans of Walpi : 

The Horn people, to which the Lenbaki [Flute] belonged, have a legend of coming 
from a mountain range in the east. 

Its peaks were always snow covered, and the trees were always green. From the 
hillside the plains were seen, over which roamed the deer, the antelope, and the 
bison, feeding on never-failing grasses. [Possibly the Horn people were so called 
from an ancient home where horned animals abounded.] Twining through these 
plains were streams of bright water, beautiful to look upon. A place where none but 
those who were of our people ever gained access. 

This description suggests some region of the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Like 
the Snake people, they tell of a protracted migration, not of continuous travel, for 
they remained for many seasons in one place, where they would plant and build per- 
manent houses. One of these halting places is described as a canyon with high, steep 
walls, in which was a flowing stream; this, it is said, was the Tsegi (the Navajo name 
for Canyon de Chelly). 6 Here they built a large house in a cavernous recess, high 
up in the canyon wall. They tell of devoting two years to ladder making and 
cutting and pecking shallow holes up the steep rocky side by which to mount to the 
cavern, and three years more were employed in building the house. . . . 

The legend goes on to tell that after they had lived there for a long time a stranger 
happened to stray in their vicinity, who proved to be a Hopituh [Hopi], and said 
that he lived in the south. After some stay he left and was accompanied by a party 
of the "Horn " [clan], who were to visit the land occupied by their kindred Hopituh 
and return with an account of them; but they never came back. After waiting a 
long time another band was sent, who returned and said that the first emissaries had 
found wives and had built houses on the brink of a beautiful canyon, not far from the 
other Hopituh dwellings. After this many of the Horns grew dissatisfied with their 
cavern home, dissensions arose, they left their home and finally they reached Tusayan. 

The early legends of the Snake clans tell how bags containing 
their ancestors were dropped from a rainbow in the neighborhood of 
Navaho mountain. They recount how they built a pentagonal home 
and how one of their young men married a Snake girl who gave birth 
to reptiles, which bit the children and compelled the people to migrate. 
They left their canyon homes and went southward, building houses 
at the stopping-places all the way from Navaho mountain to Walpi. 
Some of these houses, probably referring to their Icivas and Icihus, 
legends declare, were round ^ and others square. 

Some of the ruins here mentioned have been known to white men 
for many years. There is evidence that they have been repeatedly 

a See A Study of Pueblo Architecture, Tusayan and Cibola, [in Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of 
Ethnology. The legend was obtained by Mr. A. M. Stephen. 

6 Evidently a mistake in identification of localities. Although the Navaho name Tsegi has persisted 
as the designation of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, there is little doubt that when the Hopi gave to Stephen 
the tradition of their former life in "Tsegi," they did not refer, as he interpreted the narration, to what 
is now called Canyon de Chelly, but to Laguna canyon, likewise bordered by high cliffs, which the 
Navaho also designate Tsegi. The designation Canyon de Chelly was used by Simpson in 1850 (Sen. Ex. 
Doc. no. 64, 31st Cong., 1st sess.), who wrote (p. 69, footnote): "The orthography of this word I got from 
Senor Donaciano Vigil, secretary of the province, who informs me that it is of Indian origin. Its 
pronunciation is chay-e."— J. W. F. 

c The circular type disappeared before they arrived in the valley below Walpi. Legends declare 
that the original Snake kivas were circular, and there are references, in legends of clans other than those 
that formerly lived in the north, to circular kivas formerly used by the Hopi. 



4 BUKEAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

visited by soldiers, prospectors, and relic hunters. The earliest 
white visitor of whom there is any record was Lieutenant Bell, of 
the 2d ( ?) Infantry, U. S. A.,^ whose name, with the date 1859, is still 
to be seen cut on a stone in a wall of ruin A. 

A few years ago information was obtained from Navaho by Richard 
and John Wetherill of the existence of some of the large cliff-houses 
on Laguna creek and its branches; the latter has guided several par- 
ties to them. Among other visitors in 1909 may be mentioned Dr. 
Edgar L. Hewett, director of the School of American Archaeology 
of the Archaeological Institute of America. A party ^ from the 
University of Utah, under direction of Prof. Byron Cummings, has 
dug extensively in the ruins and obtained a considerable collection. 

The sites of several ruins in the Navaho National Monument,'' 
which was created on his recommendation, have been indicated by 
Mr. William B. Douglass, United States Examiner of Surveys, Gen- 
eral Land Office, on a map accompanying the President's proclama- 
tion, and also on a recent map issued by the General Land Office. 
Although his report has not yet been published, he has collected con- 
siderable data, m eluding photographs of Betatakin, Kitsiel (Keetseel), 
and the ruin called Inscription House, situated in the Nitsi (Neetsee) 
canyon. While Mr. Douglass does not claim to be the discoverer of 
these ruins, credit is due him for directing the attention of the Inte- 
rior Department to the antiquities of this region and the desirability 
of preserving them. 

The two ruins ^ in Nitsi (Neetsee),^ West canyon, are not yet 
included in the Navaho Monument, but according to Mr. Douglass 
these are large ones, being 300 and 350 feet long, respectively,^ and 
promise a rich field for investigation. That these ruins will yield 
large collections is indicated by the fact that the several specimens of 
minor antiquities in a collection presented to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution by Mr. Janus, the best of which are here figured (pis. 15-18), 
came from this neighborhood, possibly from one of these ruins. 

The ruins in West canyon (pi. 2) are particularly interesting from 
the fact that the walls of some of the rooms are built of elongated 

a Probably Lieut. William Hemphill Bell, of the Third Infantry, United States Army. 
b Since the writer's return to Washington this party has spent several months at Betatakin 
c Mr. Douglass has furnished the writer the following data from his report regarding the positions of 
the most important ruins in the Navaho National Monument: 

LATITUDE LONGITUDE 

Kitsiel, 36° 45' 33" north. 110° 31' 40" west. 

Betatakin, 36° 40' 57" north. 110° 34' 01" west. 

Inscription House, 36° 40' 14" north. 110° 51' 32" west. 

d One of these is designated Inscription House on Mr. Douglass's map (pi. 22). 

e According to one Navaho the meaning of this word is " antelope drive," referring to the resemblance 
of the canyon to such a structure. 

/For photographs of Kitsiel (pi. 1) and of Inscription House (here pi. 2), published by courtesy in 
advance of Mr. Douglass's report, the writer is indebted to the General Land Office. Acknowledgment 
is made to the same ofJice for ground plans of Kitsiel and Betatakin, which were taken from Mr. Doug- 
lass's report. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 4 




a. INTERIOR 




h. EXTERIOR 

RUIN A, SOUTHWEST OF MARSH PASS 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 5 

cylinders of clay shaped like a Vienna loaf of bread. These 
''bricks" consist of a bundle of twigs enveloped in red clay, 
which forms a superficial covering, the ''brick" being flattened on 
two faces. These unusual adobes were laid like bricks, and so tena- 
ciously were they held together by clay mortar that in one instance 
the corner of a room, on account of undermining, had fallen as a single 
mass. The use of straw-strengthened adobe blocks is unknown 
in the construction of other cliff-houses, although the author's 
investigations at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park revealed 
the use of cubical clay blocks not having the central core of twigs or 
sticks, and true adobes are found in the Chelly canyon and at 
Awatobi, The ruins in West canyon can be visited from either 
Bekishibito or Shanto, the approach from both of these places being 
not difficult. There is good drinking water in West canyon, where 
may be found also small areas of pasturage owned by a few Navaho 
who inhabit this region. The trail by which one descends from the 
rim of West canyon to the valley is steep and difficult. 

One of the most interesting discoveries in West canyon is the 
grove of peach trees in the valley a short distance from the canyon 
wall. The existence of these trees indicates Spanish influence. Peach 
trees were introduced into the Hopi country and the Canyon de 
CheUy in historic times either by Spanish priests or by refugees from 
the Rio Grande pueblos. They were observed in the Chelly canyon 
by Simpson in 1850. 

The geographical position of these ruins in relation to Navaho 
mountain ^ leads the writer to believe that they might have been 
built by the Snake clans in their migration south and west from 
Tokonabi to Wukoki, but he has not yet been able to identify them 
by Hopi traditions. 

But Httle has appeared in print on the ruins near Marsh pass. 
In former times an old government road, now seldom used, ran 
through Marsh pass, and those who traveled over it had a good view 
of some of these ruins. Situated far from civilization, this region has 
attracted but slight attention, although it is one of the most impor- 
tant, archeologically speaking, in our Southwest. Much of this part 
of Arizona is covered with ruins, some of which, as "Tecolote,"^ are 
indicated on the United States Engineers' map of 1877. In his 
excellent article *" on this region Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden gives us no 
description of the interesting cHff-dwellings in or near Marsh pass, 
though he writes of the ruins in the neighboring canyon: "There are 
numerous small valley sites, several cKff houses, and a few picto- 

o Hopi legends ascribe the former home of the Snake clan to the vicinity of this mountain. 
^ The Mexican Spanish name for the ground-owl, from Nahuatl tecolotl. 
cin American Anthropologist, N. s., v, no. 2, 1903. 



6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

graphs in the canyon of the Towanache,'^ which enters Marsh pass 
from the northwest." As indicated on his map, Doctor Prudden's 
route did not pass the large ruins west and south of this canyon or 
those on the road to Red Lake and Tuba. 

Manifestly, the purpose of a national monument is the preserva- 
tion of important objects contained therein, and a primary object 
of archeological work should be to attract to it as many visitors and 
students as possible. As the country in which the Navaho National 
Monument is situated is one of the least known parts of Arizona 
first place will be given to a brief account of one of the routes by 
which the important ruins included in the reserve may be reached. 

ROUTES TO THE NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT 

. Three routes to the Monument have been used by visitors, namely: 
(1) that from Bluff, Utah, by way of OljatoorMoonwater canyon; (2) 
that from Gallup, New Mexico, via the Chin Lee valley, and (3) 
that from Flagstaff, via Tuba and the Moenkopi wash. The disad- 
vantages of the first route, that used by most visitors, are the isola- 
tion of Bluff from railroads, the treacherous character of the San 
Juan river, which must be crossed, and the rugged country near 
Marsh pass. From the Gallup road it would be possible to go 
through the Canyon de Chelly in full view of many of its greatest 
chff -dwellings, and while facilities for outfitting and purchasing 
suppHes along the route are not of the best, this route has its advan- 
tages. 

Route from Flagstaff to Marsh Pass 

The writer outfitted at Flagstaff, Arizona, and, following the ^ ' Tuba 
road," forded the Little Colorado at Tanners crossing, and con- 
tinued on to Tuba, a Navaho Indian agency situated near the Moen- 
kopi wash, where there is a trading place at which provisions can be 
had. The road from Flagstaff to Tuba is well traveled, its sole draw- 
back being the ford of the river, the bottom of which at times is 
treacherous. Immediately after leaving Flagstaff this route passes 
through a pine forest, which offers many attractive camping 
places and where water can always be obtained. For the greater 
part of the distance Sunset and O'Leary peaks are in full view and the 
beautiful San Francisco mountains are likewise conspicuous. After 
crossing Deadmans flat the road descends to Indian Tanks, situated 
near the lower hmit of the cedar trees; here is a fairly good camping 
place where water is generally available. From this camp to Half- 
way House* one crosses a semiarid desert, where wood and water 
are hard to find. 

a The word bofcZio ("canyon") is applied by the Navaho to this canyon; tsegi ("high rocks") is used to 
designate the cliffs that hem it in. 
b A two-room stone house erected by the Indian Bureau for use of employes. 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NAT.ONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 7 

One of the mr i irit'^resting landmarks visible from the rrad, after 
leaving Indian ''y;;ks is called Superstition mountain, an ^.evation 
situated to th According to Navaho stories, phantom fires 

are sometimeb ;-ecii on this mountain on dark nights, recalUng an 
incident, mentioned in the Snake legend, wliich occurred when the 
Snake clans came south in their early migration from Tokonabi. 
This leger.d states that all this land once belonged to their Fire God, 
Masauu, who was likewise god of the surface of the earth. Lights 
moving around tl\e mesas are said to have been seen by these ancient 
inhalritants much as they are now ascribed to Superstition mountain. 

Th ? t »'avele>' over the recent lava beds and cinder plains in the 
neighborhood of the San Francisco mountains can readily accept the 
statement t]i-it the early Hopi saw flames issuing from the earth or 
the ghj'W of hot lava, which gave substance to the legend still preserved 
amo>ag this people. It was so natural for them to regard such a 
con ntry as the property of their Fire God that their legends state 
ihiey inherited the land from him. 

' The legends of the Snake clans recount also that when their 
'ancestors migrated from Tokonabi they went south and west until 
they reached the Little Colorado river, where they built many houses 
of stone. They remained there several years, but later left these 
houses and continued in an easterly direction to Walpi. Where are 
the ruins of these ancient houses of the Snake clans on the Little 
Colorado? There are several Little Colorado ruins, as Homolobi 
near Winslow, but Hopi traditions affirm these were built by people 
who came from the south. Lower down the river at the Great Falls 
are other ruins, but these hkewise are ascribed to southern clans. 
The cluster of stone buildings near the Black Falls conforms in posi- 
tion and direction from Walpi to Hopi legends of the site of Wukoki, 
the Great Houses built by Snake clans before they went to Walpi. 
In their migration from Tokonabi, probably the Snake people tarried 
here and built houses, and then went on to the Bear settlements or 
the Hopi pueblos, where their descendants now live. More extensive 
archeologic work on these ruins may shed additional light on this 
identification, and it is interesting to compare in point of architecture 
the buildings at Black Falls ^ with those of extreme northern Arizona. 

a For plates reprftsenting ruins at Black Falls, see Twenty-second A nnual Report of the Bureau of A merican 
Ethnology. Plate 3 (hitherto unpublished) of the present report represents one of the characteristic Black 
Falls ruins, which closely resembles several of the characteristic ruins standing on low hills near the road to 
Marsh pass, beyond Red Lake. 

The architecture of the ruins on the Little Colorado near Black Falls resembles that of the open ruins, 
especially Ruin A, and those near the road from Bekishibito to Marsh pass. While great weight can not be 
given to this resemblance, since we find much uniformity in stone ruins everywhere in the Southwest, it is 
interesting to take in connection with this fact the close likeness in minor objects from the Laguna Creek 
ruins and the Black Falls cluster. The prevailing ware from both is the gray pottery with black geometri- 
cal ornamentation and red ware with black or brown decoration. The red ware and the yellow ware, so 
abundant higher up the river, are not the prevailing kinds. The pottery of the Black Falls ruins is essen- 
tially the same t.rpe as that of the San Juan and its tributaries. 
44453°- Bull. 50— 11 2 



8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHK'^L GY [bull. 50 

An obscure trail branches from the Tuba road to the Black Falls 
ruins just beyond the cedars below Indian Tanks, and the black walls 
of the so-called '^citadel" of this cluster are conspicuous for a con- 
siderable distance before one leaves the main road. The ruin here 
figured is some distance beyond the ^'citadel " ana is hidden from view 
by intervening hills and mesas, but from the time the tiaveler crosses 
the valley of the Little Colorado and goes down into the Moenkopi 
wash he follows approximately the old trail the Snake p/^ople took in 
their southerly migration from Tokonabi. 

Near Tanners crossing on the left bank, a short distaiicc down the 
river^ Mr. Janus ^ has cemented a small basin above the highest level 
of the flood, into which always flows pure water. The road fTom the 
river to Moenkopi wash passes through a region where there h very 
Uttle wood for camping and no water. The distance from Fla gstL\ff 
to Tuba, about 90 miles, may be traveled in two days by taking* the 
midday meal of the first day at Indian Tanks and camping the fa'sv 
night at Halfway House, where there is water for horses. 

The pueblo settlement of Moenkopi (''place of the running water » 
which lies not far from Tuba, will give the visitor a fair idea of a sinalfl 
Hopi pueblo. This settlement is said to be comparatively mcd-i \ 
and to have been made by colonists from Oraibi, but there are reasfu- 
to believe that it dates back to the middle of the eighteenth centurv'. 
The pueblo is inhabited mainly by Pakab (Reed) clans, a people o! 
late advent in the Hopi country, whose arrival therein was subsequent, 
at all events, to that of the Snake clans. The houses of Moenkopi are 
arranged in rows, and it has one ceremonial room, or kiva, not unlike 
the kivas of Walpi. None of the great nine-days ceremonies of the 
Hopi is performed at Moenkopi; such dances as exist, called Icatcinas, 
are conducted by masked participants. Possibly the presence of 
Pakab clans in this pueblo is accounted for by need of warriors in its 
exposed position, for the chief of the Hopi Warrior society (at Walpi) 
belongs to the Pakab clan. The ruins about Moenkopi are small and 
inconspicuous, but those between this pueblo and Oraibi are of 
considerable size. 

Beyond Tuba the road is rough, running over upturned strata of 
rocks and extending along sandy stretches of plain and hills to Red 
Lake, where there is an Indian trading store owned by well-known 
merchants of Flagstaff.^ Here also provisions may be obtained for 
the trip and abundant water for stock. The road now becomes more 
difficult. Just after leaving Red Lake there may be noticed to the 
left two great pinnacles of rock called Elephant Legs, not unlike those 
in Monument canyon, Utah, and far to the north the cliffs are fan- 
tastically eroded. The White Mesa natural bridge, visible from Red 

a Mr. Stephen Janus, agent of the Northwestern Navaho, to whom the author is indebted for many kind, 
nesses, joined him at Tuba and made the trip to Marsh pass and the neighboring ruina with his party. 

6 The presence of excellent trgtders' stores at Tuba and Red Lake renders it unnecessary to carry gro^ 
ceriesor fodder from Flagstaff, 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 9 

Lake, is one of the scenic features of this locahty. There are pre- 
historic burials in the sands near Red Lake, from which have been 
obtained several beautiful specimens of pottery resembling in the 
main those from the Navaho National Monument and from the Black 
Falls ruins. 

The road continues from Red Lake to Bekishibito (Cow Spring),^ 
where the water issues from under a low cliff, spreading in the wet 
season over the adjacent plain and forming a shallow lake several 
miles long, whose bottom is somewhat dangerous on account of 
quicksands. When there is water a rich mantle of grass — a boon to 
travelers in this dusty land — covers the plain, making an attractive 
camping place. This stretch of the road, not more than 20 miles in 
length, is fairly good and easily traversed by wagons. 

After leaving Bekishibito, the road to Marsh pass, although on the 
whole not bad, becomes more and more obscure. The traveler now 
enters the region of ruins, and passes several mounds indicating 
former habitations, some of which still have standing walls. Several 
pools of water, reduced to little more than mudholes, are found along 
the road, but a constant supply of potable water is found at the 
sand hills in the Black mesa opposite thebutte called by the Navaho 
Saunee, 30 to 40 miles distant from Cow Spring. The distance 
from Red Lake to this camp is a good day's journey with a heavily 
loaded buckboard, noon camp being made at Bekishibito. From 
Saunee one can easily reach Marsh pass in another day, making in 
all -BlYB '^sleeps" from Flagstaff to Marsh pass. The only serious 
difficulties on the route are encountered as one ascends the pass, 
but a few weeks' work here would make the whole road from Tuba 
to Marsh pass as good as that from Flagstaff to Tuba, which is 
considered one of the best in this part of Arizona. 

A large ruin with high walls is visible on a promontory of the 
Sethlagini plateau westward from this camp. This ruin, as well 
as another near the road, about halfway from the sand hills to 
Bekishibito, was not studied; the latter, which lies only a short dis- 
tance from the road, on a low rocky hill, was visited and found to 
be the remains of a small pueblo, more or less dilapidated but with 
standing walls. The fragments of pottery in this vicinity are not 
unlike those found at the Black Falls ruins, and the masonry of the 
ruin is almost identical in character. At the time of the writer's 
visit there was a pool of water, not very inviting even to horses, a 
few hundred feet from this ancient habitation. Numerous sheep 
pasturing in the neighborhood befoul this pool, so that it can not be 
depended on to supply the needs of either men or horses. The road 
(plate 2) follows the valley west of the great Sethlagini mesa, over a 
hill and finally down again to a Navaho cornfield, the owner of which 
served as a guide to the large ruin A. 

a Spanisli: vaca, "cow"; Navaho: shi, "her"; to, "water". 



10 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

MAJOR ANTIQUITIES 
Ruin A 

The first ruin of considerable size that was visited is situated to the 
left of and somewhat distant from the road, a few miles west and 
south of Marsh pass. As this ruin (pi. 4) « stands on an elevation, 
it is visible for a considerable distance across the valley, especially 
to one approaching it from the southwest. The standing walls rise 
in places to a height of 10 feet, showing indications of two stories, 
some of the rafters in places still projecting beyond the face of the 
wall. The two walls highest and most prominent are parallel, 
inclosing a long room or court; in one place a break has been made 
through these walls, as appears in the illustration. The remnants or 
foundations of other walls back of these show that ruin A was 
formerly very much larger than the walls now standing would 
indicate. 

The walls are composed of roughly laid masonry, bearing evidences 
on the inside of adobe plastering. An exceptional feature is the 
large number of the component stones decorated on their outer faces 
with deeply incised geometrical figures, apparently traced with some 
pointed implement.^ 

Comparison of the architecture of this ruin with that of the Black 
Falls ruin here figured (pi. 3) shows a resemblance which is more 
than superficial, in the elevated site, character of the masonry, and 
general ground plan; and comparison of its walls with those of Old 
Walpi shows a similar likeness, which is instructive so far as it goes. 
This is the only large ruin visited that is characterized by high stand- 
ing walls on top of an eminence, but Navaho guides said they were 
familiar with others in this neighborhood similar in structure and 
situation. 

Immediately after leaving this ruin the attention is drawn to the 
first of the large cliff- dwellings, cliff-house B, situated near Marsh 
pass. The contrast in color of the Cretaceous rocks on the right 
and the Triassic formations on the left side of the pass is noticeable 
for some distance. The great cliff-dwellings are found high up in 
the red sandstone on the left. 

Cliff-House B 

This picturesque ruin occupies the whole floor of a narrow, low 
cave situated in an almost vertical cliff forming one side of a can- 
yon which extends deep into the mountain ; the entrance is between 
low hills on the left, where the road ascends to Marsh pass. The 

a This rviin may be that called Tecolote, which appears on many old maps. 

b Among other names cut on the walls of this ruin is that of Lieutenant Bell, 1859. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 7 




SWALLOWS NEST 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, AEIZONA 11 

ruin can be seen for a long distance, but as one approaches the can- 
yon in which it Hes the site is hidden by foothills. The accom- 
panying view (pi. 5) was taken from the opposite side of the 
canyon, it being impossible to get an extended detailed view of the 
ruin from above or below. Beyond the ruin the canyon forms a nar- 
rowing fissure with precipitous sides ; its bed is covered with bushes, 
stunted trees, and fallen rocks. No flowing water was found in this 
canyon, but in the ledges near its mouth, below the ruins, there are 
pockets and potholes which contained considerable water at the 
time of the writer's visit. 

This cliff-dwelling is difficult to enter, the walls of the canyon, 
both above and below and on the sides, being almost perpendicular. 
A pathway extending along the side of the cliff on the level of the 
cave approaches within 20 feet of the ruin; from its end to the first 
room of the ruin this trail is continued by a series of footholes pecked 
in the rock, making entrance hazardous at this point." Although 
the walls of this cliff-dwelling are more or less destroyed and their 
foundations deeply buried, there still remains standing masonry of a 
square tower (?) reaching from the floor to the roof of the cave. 
One corner of this tower is completely broken out, but the remaining 
sides show that this building was three stories high, composed of 
rooms one above another. 

Several other rooms lie concealed under fallen walls and debris. 
One of the most instructive of these is what may have been a Mva, 
or ceremonial room,^ the location of its walls being indicated by 
stakes projecting out of the ground. Lower down, where the wall 
was better preserved, sticks or wickerwork were found interwoven in 
the uprights, the whole being plastered with adobe, a form of wall 
construction common in prehistoric ruins of Arizona. 

In comparison with the Mesa Verde ruins, the masonry of this 
ruin is poor, but the stones used in constructing the walls are large. 
The many fragments of pottery strewn over the surface of the floor 
of the cave resemble in symbolism pottery from Black Falls, the 
same colors, black and white, predominating.^ 

In descending the declivity of the cliff in the sides of which cliff- 
house B is situated, there comes to view a cluster of broken walls 
crowning a low elevation, which indicate a former house of some size. 
In their neighborhood are the foundations of other walls, and the 
ground in the vicinity is strewn with many fragments of pottery and 
much fallen masonry half buried in debris. Farther down the hill, 

a A few broken-down walls of rooms stand at the side of the trail just before one reaches the dangerous 
part. 

h No other rooms that could be called ceremonial were recognized in cliff-house B, but the writer's exam- 
ination of the ruin was not very thorough and their existence may have escaped him. 

c Mr, Black informs me that it was in this ruin that he found the beautiful woven belt now at El Tovar 
Hotel, Grand Canyon. 



12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

on the level of the road and extending parallel with it, are low ridges 
or mounds covered with pottery, indicating the former presence of a 
pueblo of considerable size. No walls were traced in these mounds, 
which seem to indicate the existence of an ancient cemetery, as 
several rings of small stones, suggesting graves, were found. A short 
distance beyond this supposed cemetery is a little cave, situated 
a few hundred feet to the left of the road. In this cave are a few 
walls, but the cliff-dwelling is not of great size; beyond it the road 
rises steeply to Marsh pass. (PI. 6.) 

Although some of the ruins in the Navaho Monument may be visited 
without the use of saddle horses, the largest can not now be approached 
with wagons. It would be possible at a small expense, however, 
so to improve the Indian trail up the canyon of Laguna creek that one 
could drive within a fraction of a mile of the great ruins, Betatakin 
and Kitsiel. At present, to reach these one must leave carriages at 
Marsh pass and descend with saddle horses to the bed of Laguna 
creek, which flows along the canyon, in the side branches of which are 
situated the greatest two cliff -dwellings of the region. One of these, 
Betatakin, is about six miles, the other, Kitsiel, about 10 miles, from 
Marsh pass. 

Swallows Nest 

Descending to Laguna creek and following the bottom of the 
canyon, crossing and recrossing the stream several times, the first 
cliff -dwelling is seen built in a niche in the cliffs high up on the right. 
This ruin seems to fill the bottom of a symmetrically vaulted, 
open cave, the high arched roof and sides of which are so eroded 
that from one point of view the shadow cast by the ruin at certain 
times outlines the profile of a head and part of a human body, as 
seen in plate 7. Although a talus ^ extends from this ruin some dis- 
tance down the cliff, rendering access difficult, the ruin was entered, 
but found to be in a poor state of preservation. Several of the walls, 
viewed from the road, appeared to be in good condition, and some of 
the rooms are more than one story high. 

Betatakin 

Following the canyon about five miles from Marsh pass, the writer's 
party came to a fork in the canyon,^ where a guide was found who 
led the way across the stream into a small side canyon, in the end of 
which lies Betatakin. This canyon is wooded and at the time of 
the writer's visit contained plenty of water, a small stream . 

o Rooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which project in places out of the ground. 

6 Laguna creek is entered at this point on the right by a stream bifurcating into the Cataract and East 
tributaries, which flow through canyons of the same names. In or near East canyon are four large 
ruins: Ladder House, Cradle House, Forest-glen House, and Pine-tree House. The largest ruin in 
Cataract canyon is Kitsiel. The Navaho sometimes speak of the East canyon as the Salt, or Alkaline, 
bokho. 



I 



FEWKEsi NAVAHO KATlOKAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 13 

issuing from almost under the walls and trickling down through the 
bushes over a mass of fallen rock which forms the talus. The climb 
to the ruin from the place where horses must be abandoned is not 
a hard one and a trail could easily be made; in fact a carriage 
road might be constructed at small expense from Marsh pass to 
within half a mile of this great ruin, one of the largest two and 
best preserved cliff-dwellings in the Navaho National Monument. 

A feature of this ruin (plates 8-11) which attracts attention on 
entering it is the fine echo, due to the shape of the open cave in which 
it lies. Were the name not preempted, it would seem that Echo 
House would be a much more appropriate designation for the ruin 
than Betatakin, ''High-ledges House," applied to it by the Navaho. 

Certain differences in architectural features between cliif-houses in 
the Mesa Verde region and those here considered are apparent. The 
caves in which the cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument region are 
situated differ in geological formation from those of the Mesa Verde 
National Park. While in the former there are many instances of 
horizontal cleavage planes, as a rule the falling of blocks of stone has 
left vertical flat faces. On this account the caves are shallow and 
high-vaulted rather than extending deep into the cliff. The process 
of formation of these vertical planes of cleavage is shown by examining 
plate 9 ; in this case a pinnacle of rock has begun to break away and is 
partially separated from the surface of the cliff. This pinnacle will 
ultimately topple over and fall as many have done before, leaving a 
broken stump at its former base. In this way, from time to time, in 
the past geological history of the cave, detached pinnacles and slabs 
of rock have broken away along these vertical planes of cleavage, 
leaving the tops of their broken bases later to become foundations 
for rooms. Similar flat vertical planes of cleavage are rare, almost 
unknown, in the Mesa Verde caves. Here the cleavage is horizontal, 
the caves extending deep into the cliffs.^ 

The modifications in architecture brought about by the difference 
in direction of these cleavage planes are apparent. The ancient 
builders in the Navaho Monument region utilized the vertical faces 
as supports for walls of rooms on one or more sides. In some cases 
the face of the cliff forms the rear walls; in others a side wall and the 
rear wall of a room are formed by vertical cleavage planes at right 
angles, as shown in plate 9. It can be seen that adjacent houses built 
upon fallen rocks of different heights, the vertical faces being utilized 
as rear walls, would seem to stand one above another, or, in other 
words, they would present the well-known terrace form which exists 
in some modern pueblos. 

o Another geological feature of the sites of the large cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument is the 
almost constant presence of a vertical cliff-wall below the cave floor, the talus rarely extending to the 
base of the lowest rooms. 



14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY {bull. 50 

The writer approached this ruin by following the fallen debris at 
the end, where the rooms, being without covering and exposed to 
the elements, are most dilapidated. Over this fallen mass one makes 
his way with difficulty and is often in danger of falling from the cHff. 
On account of the perpendicular face of the cliff below the founda- 
tions of the other end of the ruin, it is impossible to climb into it, 
except from this side. On approaching the ruin there is to be seen 
on the vertical face of the cliff a pictograph (pi. 12) worthy of 
special mention, or rather two pictographs which are doubtless con- 
nected in meaning. The larger of these is a circle, painted white, 
resembling a shield (a common object in pictographic representation), 
the other a horned animal, perhaps a mountain sheep. ^ The figure 
on the shield, which bears evidence of former coloration, represents 
a human being with outstretched arms, the hands being raised to the 
level of the head. On each side of the body are represented two 
designs — a circle of yellow and a crescent in which are parallel bands 
of red, yellow, and probably green. 

The rooms in this cliff-house are rectangular, cubical, or box-like 
structures built against the face of the cliff, which serves as their 
rear wall. There are no towers or round rooms such as those that 
lend picturesqueness to several of the Mesa Verde cliff -dwellings. Few 
of the rooms are more than two stories high, the appearance of 
terraced rooms being given by the varying heights of their foun- 
dations. The masonry is crude, the lines are irregular, and the 
external faces of the walls vertical. The interior wall was probably 
plastered, and some walls afford good evidence that their exterior 
was formerly covered with mud. 

A marked feature of ruins in this region is the adobe walls sup- 
ported by rows of stakes with interwoven sticks. No adobe bricks 
were seen in the walls examined.^ 

One of the largest clusters of rooms in this cliff-house (Betatakin) 
stands on a huge rock foundation, the vertical face of which is 
continuous with the wall of masonry of the front building of the 
cluster. (PL 11.) The rear wall of the front room is formed by the 
vertical face of the cliff. About half of the roof of this room has gone, 
but several patches still remain even in the broken section. The rooms 
of the higher tier are set against an upright wall. The doorway is on 
one side. The shelf of rock on which this room stands is level with 

a According to Hopi legends, the Horn clans (animals with horns) are kin to the Snake, and formerly 
lived with the Snake clans at Tokonabi. Later they united with the Flute clans at Lengyanobi, and still 
later joined the Snake clans at Walpi. Lengyanobi (" Pueblo of the Flute") is a large ruin north of the 
Hopi mesas. 

b"Adobe bricks" with straw, according to Mr. W. B. Douglass, are found at Inscription House near the 
end of the White mesa. The writer has found adobe cubes in some of the walls of CliflE Palace, but these 
contain no straw. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 9 




BETATAKIN-WESTERN END 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



GALLERY W/^Li. 





SECTION 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 10 




3ROUND PLAN 
OF THE 

TATA KIN 

S/AHO IND-RE'SAR^Z- 
BY 
W-BPOUCbLASS 
ICAMIMER OF SURVEYS 

3NERAL LAND OFF- 



D 10 20 30 40 
3CALf"f££T 



/ 




I u 



iS 



FEWKES] NAVAHO national monument, ARIZONA 15 

the roof of the first room and the cave wall forms its rear. This 
room was probably a ceremonial chamber, having a fire-hole in the 
floor, between which and the doorway is a low wall of masonry cor- 
responding to the deflector, or altar, in Mesa Verde ruins.'' The 
part of the floor on which one steps in entering this room is raised 
slightly above the remainder, serving to connect the base of the 
deflector with the doorsill. The deflector and fire-hole are practi- 
cally duplicates of features common to several Cliff Palace kivas. 
At Betatakin, however, the ceremonial room is above ground, not 
subterranean, and is entered from the side instead of from the top. 

A two-story room stands on the rock one tier higher than the cere- 
monial room just mentioned, its foundation being at the level of the 
roof of the ceremonial room, as shown in the illustration. The front 
wall of this room is more or less broken down, but on one side, where 
projecting rafters are found in place, the masonry, otherwise unbroken^ 
is pierced by a small window. This room has also a door on the side. 
Several well-preserved rooms extend along a ledge of rock on the 
same level as the roofs of these buildings, forming another tier above 
the ceremonial room. One of these has a fine roof; ends of rafters 
extend from the walls. 

Beyond the ceremonial room, on the side where the ruin is most 
dilapidated, may be noted the same arrangement of the rooms in tiers 
or terraces, brought about by the varying height of their foundations. 
Several walls in these rooms are in good condition, but the fronts of 
many are broken down. Here are found rows of sticks or supports 
projecting from the debris. The wafls are almost invariably of stone; 
those supported by sticks are usually connecting walls. The roofs of 
some of these rooms are entire, but many are broken, although their 
rafters still remain in place. 

The whole length of Betatakin is not far from 600 feet, following 
the foundations from one end to the other. There are not far from 
100 rooms visible, and evidences of others covered with debris. The 
larger of the two rooms identified as ceremonial rooms on account 
of their deflectors, measures 10 by 7 feet and is about 5 feet high; 
the smaller is about 7 feet square. There are no vertical ventilators 
as in circular kivas, the smoke evidently flnding egress through a 
small hole in the roof. The floor of one of these ceremonial rooms 
was cut in the solid rock. 

a Although circular kivas are found in several ruins in the Navaho National Monument, as Kitsiel, 
Inscription House, Scaffold House, and others, they were not seen in Betatakin, which has the rectangular 
ceremonial room with side entrance above mentioned. Although such rooms possess some of the features 
of kivas, it is perhaps better to restrict that term to the circular chambers and adopt the word kihu to 
designate the rectangular rooms above ground. The ceremonial chambers of Betatakin suggest the Flute 
room at Walpi. This fact and the discovery of a flute in one of the rooms make it appear that Betatakin 
was inhabited by Flute clans, which, according to Hopi legends, lived in this region. 



16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

As above mentioned, there are no circular rooms or towers in 
Betatakin, although one room has a rounded corner. Traces of the 
repair of doors and windows are evident, but none of these apertures 
are T-shaped. 

One of the interesting features in Betatakin and several other ruins 
in this region consists in rows of eyelets cut in the rocky side of the 
cliff evidently for the attachment of some long object. 

A cluster of small rooms isolated from those above described are 
shown in plate 9 ; these give a good idea of the general type of archi- 
tecture of these buildings and of the modifications or adaptations due 
to the sites on which they are erected and the vertical cliffs against 
which they are built. Three rooms set into the angle formed by 
two vertical cliff faces at right angles to each other illustrate how the 
cliff serves for rear walls and how the buildings are attached to it 
for support. The roofs of these rooms are entire and their rafters 
project beyond the upright walls. The doors and windows are, 
comparatively speaking, small and rectangular in form. Fragments 
of *^\^alls projecting out of the ground indicate the existence of many 
rooms covered with debris. These are especially numerous at the 
end of the ruin to which the trail leads, but as most of them are 
buried an adequate idea of their arrangement can not be gained with- 
out systematic excavation. 

KiTSiEL (Keet Seel) 

This ruin, which lies about 10 miles from Marsh pass, is a most 
interesting cliff-dwelling.^ As this is the best preserved of all the 
ruins thus far discovered in the Navaho National Monument, it 
should be excavated and repaired for future visitors and students. 
Kitsiel is a large ruin, its length (estimated at 300 feet) being not 
less than that of the greatest cliff-dwelling of the Mesa Verde National 
Park. Like other ruins in the vicinity, it is not so picturesque as the 
structures of that region, lacking round towers and other features so 
attractive in Cliff Palace.^ The accompanying illustration (pi. 13) 
presents the ground plan of this ruin, the architectural features of 
which are similar to those of Betatakin. 

One of the most striking features of Kitsiel is the great log, 35 feet 
long, under which the visitor passes to inspect the interior of the ruin. 
West of this log, which evidently once supported a retaining wall, the 
rooms are well preserved; east of it this wall in places has slipped 

a For the accompanying view of the ruin (pi. 1), from photographs taken by Mr. William B. Douglass, 
the writer is indebted to the General Land Office. 

b The kivas appear to be circular; one of them has the large banquette, like kiva M in Cliff Palace. No. 
pilasters for supporting roofs have yet been reported. 



PEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 17 

down the cliff and its component stones are to be found in the talus 
below. 

It is difficult to discover how many rooms this great cliff-house 
formerly had, but there is little doubt that they numbered more than 
150, besides the kivas. This ruin is believed to be one of the largest 
known cliff-dwellings of the Southwest, ranking in size the Cliff 
Palace in the Mesa Verde, which it does not rival, however, in variety 
of architectural features. The masonry in Kitsiel is inferior to that 
in the Spruce- tree House and the Balcony House, the walls of which 
show the highest aboriginal achievement in stonework north of 
Mexico. °^ 

The walled inclosures of Kitsiel are reducible to a few types of 
which the following may be distinguished: 

(1) Kivas, or circular subterranean rooms with a large banquette 
on one side, the walls being generally broken down and without 
pilasters or roof-supports. 

(2) Kihus, or rectangular rooms with doors on one side, each hav- 
ing a low bank, or ^^ deflector," rising from the floor between the 
doorway and the fire-hole. Instead of this bank being free from the 
wall, as at Betatakin, it is generally joined to it on one side, the floor 
at the point of junction being raised slightly above the remaining 
level. Smoke-holes are sometimes, but not always, present in the 
roof. These rooms, like the circular rooms, are ceremonial in char- 
acter. The only opening in their floors that can be compared with 
the ceremonial aperture, or sipapu, is a shallow depression a few 
inches deep. The diameters of these openings are greater than in 
the case of the sipapus in CHff Palace kivas. 

(3) Rectangular rooms, some of which have benches and show 
evidence of having been living rooms. 

(4) Large rooms each with a fireplace in the middle of the floor. 

(5) Rooms with metates set in bins made of stone slabs (milling 
rooms) . 

(6) Courts and streets. The longest street extends from the mid- 
dle of the ruin to the western end and is lined on both sides by rooms 
many of the roofs of which are still intact. 

An instructive architectural feature of some of the rooms of tliis 
ruin is the use of upright logs in supporting corners. Part of the roof 
of one of these rooms situated deep in the cave is formed by the nat- 
ural rock and the remainder by an artificial covering supported by 
upright logs forked at the end to receive the rafters. 

a The two ruins Kitsiel and Betatakin are those about which extravagant statements as to size and char- 
acter were made about two years ago by newspapers and otherwise reliable magazines. 



18 



BUEEAIJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 50 



Scaffold House 

This ruin, about 2 miles from the place where two large canyons 
open into Laguna creek, lies in a cavern worn in the side of a large 
butte on the 4eft of the stream. It is appropriately called Scaffold 
House from a finely made wooden scaffold (fig. 1) which the ancients 
constructed in a vertical cleft in the cliff about 50 feet above the 
east end of the ruin. Although this scaffold is now inaccessible from 

the walls of the room below, 
all the beams and much 
of the earthen floor still 
remain. 

The construction of the 
scaffold is as follows: The 
crevice in which it lies is 
rectangular, with the long- 
est axis vertical. Several 
large logs placed horizon- 
tally, their ends fitted into 
holes pecked in the sides of 
the crevice, support smaller 
beams laid across them at 
right angles. These latter 
in turn are covered with 
small sticks on which are 
laid bark and clay, leaving 
a hatchway at a point about 
midway. The construction 
of this scaffold, probably 
as daring a piece of aerial 
building as can be found 
anywhere among cliff-dwel- 
lings, is so well preserved 
that it shows no sign of 
deterioration. We can only 
conjecture what its use may 
have been, but the plausible suggestion has been made that it was 
an outlook or place of defense. 

Scaffold House is about 300 feet long. The rooms, which are in 
fine condition, extend along the side of the cliff, those situated 
midway of the length of the ruin being fairly well preserved. There 
are not far from 56 rooms still to be traced, and at least two circular 
kivas, the walls of one of which are still in fair condition. The larger 
kiva measures about 15 feet in diameter; it is subterranean, with a 
deep bench or banquette on one side. There is no trace of the pilasters 




Fig. 1. Scaffold of Scaffold House. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 12 




PICTOGRAPHS AT BETATAKIN 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 19 

SO conspicuous in the circular kivas of the Mesa Verde. The inner 
walls are smoothly plastered. 

Enough of the roof of this kiva remains to show the method of 
construction, and as this is the first example of such a roof the writer 
has ever examined a brief description of it may prove to be instruc- 
tive. (See pi. 14.) The supports or rafters are three in number, 
consisting of a large middle log laid across the center of the kiva 
halfway between the banquette and the opposite side, and of two 
smaller logs, parallel with it, resting on the top of the kiva wall, one 
across the banquette, and the other at about an equal distance on 
the opposite side. A number of smaller transverse beams, parallel 
with one another, are supported by the three logs already mentioned, 
and upon these lie the layers of sticks, bark, and adobe which cover 
the roof. No hatchway or place for a vertical opening was to be 
seen, but as the covering of the banquette is missing it is quite 
possible that the entrance to the kiva may have had some connec- 
tion with this feature. 

The top of a vertical stone slab, comparable in shape and position 
with a deflector, was seen projecting out of the debris that fills the 
lower part of the kiva, and rods in the wall near the roof represent 
pegs found at the tops of the pilasters in Mesa Verde kivas. There 
is a niche at one side for small objects, a constant feature in all kivas, 
circular and rectangular. The iire-hole was covered with debris. 

The second circular kiva, w^hich belongs to the same subtype, is 
situated not far from the one described, but is much more dilapi- 
dated, about half its walls having fallen. The roof of this kiva 
appears to have been supported in part by upright logs isolated from 
the walls, inside the chamber, three of which still stand in their 
original positions. This feature reminds one of kivas of the Kio 
Grande region as described by Castaneda, the historian of the Coro- 
nado expedition in 1540-42. In addition to the two circular kivas 
Scaffold House contains another room that may have been ceremonial 
in character, having all the essentials of the Betatakin rooms herein 
referred to as kivas. It lies near the western end of the ruin, its 
northwestern wall being bound by the vertical cliff. This room is 
rectangular, with a lateral entrance opposite which is a low 
bank, or deflector; the floor between the latter and the doorway is 
raised slightly above the general level. The fire-hole occupies a posi- 
tion on the other side, as in rooms of this kind in Betatakin. It was 
noticed that the sides of the doorway are considerably worn and that 
its lintel is made of split sticks. 

In addition to the two circular subterranean kivas at Scaffold House 
there is at least one kihu in this ruin. This is situated near the west- 
ern end, being built against the upright or rear wall of the cavern to 
which the two side walls are joined. The doorway is like those of the 



20 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

kihus in Betatakin and is situated opposite the cliff-wall. The roof 
has fallen in, but the beams and wattling remain in place as they fell. 
There is a fire-hole in the middle of the floor, and between it and the 
doorway is a deflector made of upright staves between which is adobe 
work; the whole is plastered with adobe. The threshold of the low 
doorway is shghtly elevated above the floor, and between it and the 
base of the deflector is a raised platform. The lintels are made of 
sticks split with wedges, possibly of stone, as shown by their fibrous 
surfaces. ■■{ 

There are many pictographs on the cliff at Scaffold House, the 
most conspicuous of which represent human hands, snakes (one of 
them is 15 feet long) , mountain sheep or other horned mammals, and 
nondescript figures representing tailed human beings. 

The ruins at Bubbling Spring, a short distance from Scaffold House, 
are inconspicuous. 

Cradle House 

This large ruin,^ so named from the finding of the cradle described 
and illustrated herein, is situated in the side of a bluff rising above 
East canyon. It contains about 50 rooms and at least 3 circular 
kivas without pilasters, the front walls of which are considerably 
broken down. 

The rooms of Cradle House as a rule extend along the rear of the 
cave, their back walls generally being formed by the vertical wall of 
the cliff, there being no recess behind them. The majority of the 
rooms lie about midway in the length of the ruin, the kivas being situ- 
ated in front of the cluster. In two or three places rooms are found 
on levels below or above that of the main cluster, but only rarely are 
there rooms in front of others on the same level. On the upper ledge 
near the western end a small bin is found at the base of which is a 
considerable depression, probably artificial. 

Ladder House 

The more or less dilapidated walls of this ruin are to be seen from 
the left bank of East canyon, a few miles farther upstream. The posi- 
tion is indicated by an enormous butte which projects into the canyon 
and diverts the stream at that point. One side of this butte is eroded 
in such a way as to resemble in outline an elephant's trunk, this erosion 
marking the initial process in the formation of a '^natural bridge." 
On the opposite side of this butte there is another large cliff-dwelling, 
which was not visited. 

a Like all ruins in East canyon, Cradle House is situated in a small side canyon on the left bank. 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 21 

FOREST-GLEN HoUSE 

The fine growth of trees at the base of a large cliff-house about 2 
miles beyond Cradle House has suggested the name Forest-glen 
House. Some of the walls are in the form of concentric semicircles 
with the conspicuous representation of a head attached to one side. 
Many rocks have fallen on this ruin from the cave roof, especially 
at one end, but the rooms at the western end are still well preserved. 

PiNE-TREE House 

About 8 miles up East canyon there is a large, almost inaccessible, 
ruin, which lies a short distance from the main canyon. A striking 
feature of this ruin is its division into three parts, of which the central, 
section is somewhat lower than the one on each side. A large pine 
on the edge of the cliff above has suggested the narae Pine-tree House. 
Deep below this ruin is a large basin, in which grow many trees and 
bushes; among these are a good spring and a small rivulet. This 
ruin has two very large circular kivas, without pedestals, 20 to 30 
feet in diameter. A deep banquette is present on one side. This ruin 
exhibits no evidence of having been dug. 

Trickling-spring House 

After descending to Laguna creek from Marsh pass, crossing the 
stream, and following the bank about 2 miles, one comes to a ridge of 
copper-bearing rocks, beyond which the road crosses a deep ravine. 
On following the right bank this ravine is found to extend into 
the cliffs as a canyon. A few miles after entering the canyon a 
stream is encountered emerging from a spring and trickling 
over a cliff. High above this cliff, in a canyon 60 or 80 feet 
in size, the entrance to which is surrounded and more or less con- 
cealed by stately pines, spruces, and cedars, stands a cliff- 
ruin, possibly never before visited by white men, for which the 
name Trickling-spring House is suggested. Although this ruin is 
small, it is in several respects unique. The main architectural 
feature is a diminutive court or plaza, into which open a number 
of small rooms, having well-plastered walls and low entrances. 
In this, as in most of the other ruins in the Navaho National 
Monument, some of the house-walls are constructed of stone; but 
many are made of clay, plastered on sticks or wickerwork supported 
by upright logs. The masonry when present is poor as a rule, the 
component stones rarely being dressed into shape, but the surface 
plastering, especially on the kiva walls, is good. Many walls stand on 
rocks that have evidently fallen from the roof of the cave. A metate 



22 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 50 



set in position in one of the smaller rooms indicates that this particu- 
lar inclosure served as a milling room. 

Two squarish rooms, with lateral doorways and a deflector or wall 
before them, are identified as kihus. One of these has a platform or 

floor connecting the 
base of the venti- 
lator and the door- 
way. The deflector 
is free from the kihu 
walls at both ends. 
The walls of a 
room with a deflec- 
tor which opens into 
the plaza are very 
much blackened 
with smoke. No 
circular subterra- 
nean room was ob- 
served. There are 
several well-pre- 
served hatchways 
in the roofs, show- 
ing that entrances 
of this kind were 
common in addi- 
tion to lateral en- 
trances with well- 
preserved sills and 
lintels. One or two 
of the small win- 
dows in the outer 
walls have a down- 
ward slant, as if to 
aflord a better view of visitors approaching from below. One of 
these old doorways was closed with masonry, constructed possibly 
when the room was deserted. There are no signs of vandalism in 
this ruin." 

Characteristic Features of Ruins 

The existence of recesses and of refuse heaps back of the buildings 
in caves is characteristic of Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings. In the cliff- 
houses of the Canyon de Chelly and Marsh Pass regions they rarely 
exist, the house walls being built against the rear wall of the cave, 




A, B, c, 



Fig. 2. Ground plan o f Trickling-spring House. 

rooms; D, D, deflectors; E, doorway; H, H, hatchways; 
jjf, metate; P, plaza; i2, i?, rock fragments. 



o Trickling-spring House is not located on the accompanying map and, so far as could be ascertained, 
had not been visited by archeologists previously to the writer's visit. A young Navaho guided the 
writer to it a short time before he left the region. 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 23 

leaving very little space behind them for refuse or fallen debris. This 
latter feature, due to the geological character of the caves, is also 
prominent in the cliff-dwellings of the Red Rock country, at the head- 
waters of the Verde and its tributaries, and is likewise found in a few 
cliff-houses of the Gila visited by the writer. From one point of view 
the use of the wall or walls of the cave as house-walls marks a typical 
form of cliff-dwelling, or a dependent village, distinguished from a 
cliff-dwelling like Cliff Palace, the walls of which are independent or 
free on all sides from the cliffs.^ 

The masonry of the Navaho Monument ruins is crude as compared 
with that found in the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Park, and 
walls made of adobe supported by upright sticks are more numerous. 
The character of the masonry may be due in part to the slab-like char- 
acter of the building stones, and possibly to their greater hardness. 
The relative predominance of adobe walls supported by upright 
sticks was fostered by the ease with which they could be constructed 
and the quantity of clay available for building purposes. Comparison 
of the masonry of ruins in the Navaho ^lonument with that of the 
Black Falls region shows' a resemblance much greater than that exist- 
ing between either group and the cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde 
region. 

There is no architectural feature in Southwestern ruins more dis- 
tinctive than the ceremonial rooms, or kivas, but as these have never 
been recognizea throughout a large area of Arizona, it is important 
to determine the character of the ceremonial rooms of the Navaho 
Monument ruins and to compare them with kivas at present used by 
the Hopi. 

^Vliile as a rule there is great similarity in secular rooms in dihcrent 
culture areas of the Southwest, the more archaic ceremonial rooms of 
these regions vary considerably. The rooms ordinaril}" called kivas 
are of two distinct types, circular and rectangular. There are two 
kinds of circular kivas, ^ one having pilasters and banquettes to sup- 
port the roof, the other without pilasters, apparently roofless, but 
surrounded by high walls as if for the purpose of obscuring the view 
from neighboring plazas. The circular kivas commonly do not form a 
part of the house mass, being separp4.ted some distance from the secular 
rooms. From all that can be learned it appears that the round kiva 
is an ancient type, its position in the rear of the cave in such cliff- 
dwellings as Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace indicating that this 
form is as old as the building itself. The circular type, with pilasters, 
is confined wholly to the eastern region, having been reported from 
the Mesa Verde, the San Juan and many of its tributaries, Chaco 

a Of course some of the rooms in Cliff Palaoe, especially those at the western extension of the northern 
end, are dependent, the cliff forming their rear walls. 

b Both kinds of circular kivas are found in the cliff-ruins at Casa Blanca and in Mummy cave in the 
Canyon de Chelly. " 

444^3°— Bull. 50—11 3 



24 BUKEAU OF AMEEICAIT ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

canyon, and certain ruins west of the Kio Grande. Circular kivas 
somewhat modified are found also in many of the Rio Grande pueblos, 
where they are stiU in use. A subtype of circular kivas without 
pilasters but provided each with one large banquette is the common 
form of circular ceremonial room in the Navaho National Monument 
and the Canyon de Chelly. The modern representative of this sub- 
type is the Snake kiva of the Hopi, which has become rectangular, 
the large banquette (tuwihi, pi. 14) being modified into the ''specta- 
tors/' or elevated surface of the floor. 

The corresponding ceremonial rooms at Zuni and in the prehistoric 
Hopi pueblos are rectangular in form and of simpler architecture. 
Similarly shaped ceremonial rooms, not subterranean, are still 
in use in modern Hopi pueblos. As a good example of this 
archaic form of ceremonial room at Walpi may be mentioned that 
in which the Flute altar is erected and in which the Flute secret 
rites are performed. ° This ancestral room of the clan is a rectangular 
chamber forming part of the second floor, and is entered from one 
side. The Flute clans came from a pueblo, now a ruin, in the north, 
but after union with the Ala, who hved at Tokonabi, they settled at 
the Snake pueblo, Walpi. So it may be supposed that their ancestors 
also had no special kiva, but celebrated their secret rites in an 
ordinary house. 

The fraternity of Sun priests likewise erect their altar and perform 
their secret ceremonies in a room, not in a kiva; so do the Kalektaka, 
or warriors. None of these rooms is commonly regarded or enumer- 
ated as a kiva, but such chambers are believed to be the direct repre- 
sentatives of the ceremonial rooms built above ground as a part of 
the house, in the manner more characteristic of ceremonial rooms in 
Arizona ruins. 

The ruins in the Navaho Monument have ceremonial rooms allied 
on one side to the kivas of the San Juan region, and on the other to 
rooms in the Little Colorado ruins that may have been built for 
ceremonial use. The latter are constructed above ground, inclosed 
by other houses, and are rectangular in shape, with lateral doorways. 
Some of these rooms, as at Betatakin, contain each a fire screen and a 
fire-hole, as in a circular kiva, the ventilator being replaced by a lateral 
doorway. It is possible that when the Snake people inhabited their 
northern homes, before they came to Walpi, their ceremonial rooms 
were not built, as at present, partly underground, and placed at a 
distance from the secular houses. The ceremonial rooms of this clan 
and of immediate relatives when living at Tokonabi or in the Navaho 
Monument region may have resembled those of the Black Falls 

a These rites in all the Hopi pueblos are performed, as in ancient times, in rectangular rooms not called 
kivas. The Snake rites are performed now, as when the clan lived at Tokonabi in subterranean rooms 
(kivas), the present form of which is rectangular instead of circular, as at Tokonabi. 



5UREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 




BULLETIN 50 PLATE 15 



a. FOOD BOWL 
Cat. No. 257781. Diameter, 4^ inches. 




h. CLAY DISK WITH PERFORATED BORDER 
Cat. No. 258330. Diameter, 5^ inches. 




C. DIPPER 
Cat. No. 257779 Height, 4^ inches. 



d. FOOD-BOWL WITH HANDLE 
Cat. No. 257780. Diameter, (5 inches. 



POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT 



FEWKESl NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 25 

cluster of ruins. ^ Their subterranean position and separation from 
other rooms may be regarded as modifications due to foreign influ- 
ences after the clan arrived at Walpi.^ 

The sunken or subterranean situation of the ceremonial assembly 
room, or kiva, of the Pueblo region is an architectural survival of a 
people whose secular and ceremonial rooms were subterranean. This 
feature may not be autochthonous in this area, or limited to it geo- 
graphically, having probably been derived from people of kindred 
culture of the West coast, as pointed out by Mr. Ernest Sarfert's argu- 
ment on this point, which would seem to be conclusive if subterranean 
kivas could be found in the Gila and Little Colorado regions.^ 

The forms of pueblo kivas, circular or rectangular, are not derived 
one from the other, but suggest different geographical origins. The 
circular form, confined to the eastern Pueblo area, bears evidence of 
having been derived from the culture of a people inhabiting a 
forested region; while the rectangular form strongly suggests a 
people with a treeless habitat. Both circular and rectangular sub- 
terranean assembly rooms existed in aboriginal California in historic 
and prehistoric times. The archaic or prehistoric culture of the 
Pueblo region is closely related to that of the West coast in other par- 
ticulars also, that do not concern the subject of this article. 

When the Snake clans lived at Tokonabi, and later at Wukoki (on 
the Little Colorado), so far as known they had no subterranean rooms 
isolated from the others for ceremonial purposes, but used rooms so 
closely resembling other apartments that they may be called ^ living 
rooms. " Even when they came to the Hopi mesas they may not have 
had at first a specialized ceremonial chamber. A study of Arizona 
ruins reveals no rooms identified as ceremonial that are isolated from 
the house masses. This is true of cliff-dwellings and pueblos, and it 
is probable that the differentiation and separation of kivas from 
secular houses, found in modern Hopi pueblos, are an introduced 
feature of comparatively late date. At Zuiii a rectangular room, not 
separated from the house mass, serves as a kiva, the custom in this 
respect approaching more closely that found among their kindred^ 
the ancient people of the Little Colorado river, than among the more 
modified Hopi of the present time. -s 

While some of the rooms identified as ceremonial in preceding pages 
are rectangular in shape and not isolated from secular rooms, the 
circular type seems also to have been found in Utah, and at Kitsiel 
and ruins near it. South of Marsh pass circular kivas are less abun- 

alt appears that in some of the ruins of the Navaho National Monument there were both circular subter- 
ranean kivas and rectangular rooms used for ceremonial purposes. At Wuk(5ki the former do not exist, 
but two of the latter can be recognized, one of which has a construction like a ventilator. 

b None of the five Walpi kivas is older than 1C80, and one or two are of later construction. 

cHaus und Dorf bei den Eingeborenen Nordamerikas, In Arch.fiir Anthr., N. F., Bd. vn, Heft 2 and 3, 
1908. 



26 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

dant, and it appears that somewhere in this region is a line of demarca- 
tion between ruins with circular kivas and those with rectangular kivas. 
In prehistoric ruins from Marsh pass southward" to the Gila valley no 
rooms have ever been identified as kivas, although in the cavate ruins 
called Old Caves, near Flagstaff, are subterranean rooms entered from 
the floor of a room above^ which may have served for the perform- 
ance of religious rites. ^ 

From a comparison of some features of the kivas in the cliff -dwellings 
of the San Juan and its tributaries with those of the Navaho Monument 
it would appear that w^hile the ceremonial rooms of the latter in cer- 
tain details are like those of the former, in some cases their form and 
position are different. So far as this resemblance goes, it may be 
reasoned that the San Juan ancients influenced by their culture the 
northern Arizona cliff-dweUers, but there is scant evidence of the 
reverse, that is, that the San Juan pueblos borrowed from the cul- 
ture of the northern Arizonians any architectural features, especially 
in the form and construction of their kivas. The theory would be 
logical that the prehistoric migration of culture was down rather 
than up the river, and the symboHsm of the pottery contributes 
interesting data supporting this conclusion. 

MINOR ANTIQUITIES 

Notwithstanding the limited duration of the writer's visit to the 
Navaho National Monument, a few specimens of stone, wood, 
pottery, and other objects were collected. The whole pieces of pot- 
tery, numbering 14 specimens (pis. 15-18), the majority of v/hich 
came probabty from Inscription House and other ruins near Red 
Lake, were presented to the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Stephen 
Janus, Navaho agent at Tuba, who accompanied the writer on the 
trip to the Marsh Pass ruins. Fragments of pottery were picked up 
on the surface at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and several other ruins, and 
the most characteristic of these were brought back to Washington. 
No excavations were attempted, nor could all objects that were seen 
be brought away. Although up to within a few years these ruins 
were practically in the condition they were when abandoned, unfor- 
tunately of late they have been despoiled and many beautiful 
specimens have been taken from them. Many objects stiU remain 
which should be removed lest they fall into improper hands. 

a The circular kivas of Kiikiitcomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above Sikyatki, near Walpi, are the only- 
ceremonial rooms of this form known from the Hopi mesas. These were the work of the Coyote clan 
and are of Eastern origin. 

b There are two types of cavate rains, or rooms artificially excavated in the tops or faces of cliffs, near 
Flagstaff. In one t>'pe, Old Caves, the entrance to the subterranean rooms is vertical; in the other, New 
Caves, it is from the side. In one type the walls of masonry are built above the caves; in the other in front 
of them. The common feature is the existence of chambers artificially excavated in the cliff. Both types 
differ essentially from pueblos built in the open or in natural caverns, although some of the Mvas of the 
latter are excavated in the solid rock. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 




a. ROUGH VASE OF CORRUGATED WARE 
Cat. No. •Ibllll. Height, 7 inches. 




h. VASE WITH CONSTRICTED NECK 
Cat. No. 257778. Height, 8 inches. 

POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 27 

Pottery 

The pottery collected consists of jars, vases, food bowls, and circular 
disks with a row of perforations about the margin. There are also 
dipper handles and broken ladles of the usual shape. Some of these 
specimens are of corrugated ware, others have smooth surfaces with 
painted decoration. The proportion of corrugated and indented ware 
found in the Navaho Monument ruins is about the same as in the 
Mesa Verde National Park. The finest coiled ware was obtained 
from the latter locality. Several fragments of flat dishes, perforated 
on their margins (pi. 15, h), or colanders having holes in the mid- 
dle, form part of the collection.'^ 

The most instructive form of pottery in the collection brought 
back from northern Arizona is a decorated globular vase of black- 
and-white ware (pi. 16, h). The decoration on this specimen is not 
confined to the exterior but is found also on the inner surface of the 
lip; it consists mainly of triangles so united as to form hour-glass 
figures. A unique design on this vessel consists of two parallel lines, 
each with dots on one side, suggesting similar bands in red on the 
inner wall of the third story of the square tower of Cliff Palace. 

Three small bowls of crude ware are fluted on the outside, the ridge, 
or fluting, being raised somewhat above the surface of the bowl and 
having a zigzag course. One of the best of these unique ceramic 
forms has this fluting broken into S-shaped figures, as shown in the 
accompanying illustration (pi. 17, a). 

The writer collected also several perforated clay disks which were 
possibly used as spindle whorls, although they may have been 
gaming implements. A similar disk made of mountain-sheep horn 
was found at Kitsiel. 

The largest and one of the finest vases (pi. 18, a) from the neigh- 
borhood of Red Lake is also of black-and-white ware. The deco- 
ration is external and consists of black figures covering the neck 
and upper body. The base is rounded and the lip slightly flaring. 
This vase may have been used for containing water or possibly as a 
receptacle for prayer (corn) meal. The food bowls from Red Lake 
are chiefly of black-and-white ware, the red and yellow varieties 
being less numerous. A common feature in food bowls of this 
region is a handle on one side, as shown in plate 15, d. Some of 
these vessels, although of smooth ware, are without decoration on 
either the exterior or the interior. 

The shallow, slightly concave clay disk^ shown in plate 15, h, is 
characteristic in possessing a row of holes near the rim. This disk 

a These dishes resemble those sometimes used by the Hopi for sprinkling water on their altars as a 
prayer for rain. They may have been used also in sifting sand on the kiva floor, to form a layer upon 
which the sand picture is later drawn with sands of different colors. 

b Small perforated clay disks are not rare here, as in other ruins. They were used in the same way as 
the horn disk mentioned on page 30. 



28 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

seems to represent a common type, as several fragments with similar 
holes were found on the surface of the ruins. The same or related 
forms appear to have been common in ruins near the Hopi pueblos. 
These are found in the collection of votive offerings now in the 
Peabody Museum at Cambridge, from Jedito spring, near Awatobi, 
and the writer has discovered specimens elsewhere in Hopi ruins, a 
brief mention of which occurs in a report on the archeological results 
of his expedition to Arizona in 1895.^ 

Several fragments of deep bowls, each having a handle (pi. 18, h) 
on the surface, were obtained in the sands below cliff -house B; 
these are commonly of red ware and have reddish-brown and 
black decorations. A small dish of black-and-white ware (pi. 15, a) 
has the rim slightly elevated and rounded on one side. The cups or 
mugs from this region are shaped unlike those from the Mesa Verde. 
Mugs from the latter region are cylindrical in form or the walls incline 
slightly inward so that the diameter of the opening is somewhat 
less than that of the base. The lip is thick and decorated. One of 
these cups, here figured, has a constricted neck, and a slightly flaring 
rim which is thin and undecorated. The decoration of another cup 
(pi. 15, c) suggests the designs on several mugs from the Little 
Colorado ruins. So far as form and decoration are concerned, this 
cup, or handled vase, might have come from Homolobi, Chevlon, or 
Chaves pass.*^ 

The designs on fragments of pottery found in ruins in northern 
Arizona are identical with or related to those from the Black Falls 
ruins, but differ somewhat from those on pottery from ruins higher 
up the Little Colorado river. If the history of the modification of 
ceramic symbols in any of the large composite pueblos of the South- 
west be studied, it will be noticed that there are often radical changes, 
the later symbols not being modifications of earlier ones. Thus 
modern Zuni pottery designs differ materially from those found in 
ruins in the same valley. The modern pottery from East mesa is 
wholly different from that of Sikyatki, a few miles away. Again, in 
so-called modern Hopi pottery, Tewa symbols derived from the Rio 
Grande have replaced old Hopi symbols dominant before the advent 
of Tewa clans. The changes in pottery symbols in every large com- 
posite pueblo are not due to evolution of the modern from the ancient, 
but reflect the history of the advent of new clans, powerful enough 
to substitute their designs for those formerly existing. One of the 
problems of the ethnologist is to determine symbols associated with 
certain clans, and by means of legends to identify clans with ruins. 
Having determined the symbols introduced by certain clans and the 

a In Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pt. 2. 

b Compare figures from these ruins, in the Twenty-second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 17 




a. BOWLS BEARING RELIEF ORNAMENTS 
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 257783, 257784, 257782. Heights, 2^ inches, 2 inches, 2f inches. 




&. HANDLES OF FOOD-BOWLS 
Cat. No. 258326. 




C. STONE IMPLEMENTS 

(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 258334, 258335, 258336, 258337, Dimensions, 6 x 4 x IJ inches- 
5i X 3J X 2i inches: 4i x 3^ x 2 inches; 4^ x 2f x 2^ inches. 

POTTERY AND STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL 

MONUMENT 



FEWKES] 



NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 



29 



places where these clans halted m their migrations and built pueblos, 
the course of these prehistoric movements may be followed. Com- 
parison of symbols on pottery from northern Arizona with those from 
Black Falls ruins support, so far as they go, the legends that the 
Snake people, who once lived at Wukoki near the Black Falls, lived 
also in cliif-houses now ruins near Marsh pass or the White mesa. 
The symbolism indicates the presence of the same clans, and tradition 
is thereby supported. 

Cliff-dwellers Cradle 

One of the most instructive specimens collected in the Navaho 
National Monument was found by ]\ir. W. B. Douglass in a ruin desig- 
nated as Cradle House. This object is a cradle made of basket ware, 
open at one end and continued at the opposite end into a biped 
extension to serve for the legs. It is decorated on the outside with an 




Fig. 3. Design on cliff-dwellers cradle. 

archaic geometric ornamentation, the unit design of which is shown in 
the accompanying illustration. This specimen (pis. 19-21) may be 
regarded as one of the finest examples of prehistoric basketry from the 
Southwest; moreover, with one exception, it is the only known cradle 
of tliis form. A pair of infant's sandals found with the cradle leaves 
no doubt as to its use, while the character and symbolism of the 
decoration refer it to the ancient chff-house culture. The design 
(fig. 3) suggests that which characterizes certain specimens of the 
well-kno^^^l black-and-white pottery found in the San Juan drainage. 
Evidences of long use and repair appear, especially on one side. 
Unfortunately, the specimen, although entire when found, later was 
broken across its middle. 

The onl}" other known cradle of this type was brought to the 
attention of ethnoloo'ists bv Dr. W J McGee when in charo'e of the 



30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

anthropological exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition. This was found 
in San Juan county, Utah, not far from the Colorado river. ^ This 
specimen is better preserved than that here figured, but the decoration 
is practically identical; so near, in fact, that the two might have been 
made by the same woman. 

Miscellaneous Objects 

The stone implements (pi. 17, c) consist of axes, pounding stones,^ 
and hatchets. On one of the roofs at Kitsiel there was picked up a 
curved stick ^ identical with those placed by the Walpi Snake priests 
about the sand-painting of their altar. A good specimen of a plant- 
ing stick and a rod formerly used as a spindle were found near by; 
the latter is a perforated disk made of horn. A flute identical with 
those used at the present day by Flute priests at Walpi was found 
at Betatakin, thus tending to support the legend that the Flute clan 
once lived at the latter pueblo. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 

The route chosen by the author for visiting the ruins of the Navaho 
National Monument is via Flagstaff and Tuba, the distance being not 
far from 200 miles to Marsh pass and 10 miles beyond to the largest 
cliff-dwellings. Although the wagon road is long, requiring a journey 
of at least Rve days, it may be traversed with carriage or buckboard, 
the sandy stretch between Tuba and Red Lake being the most difficult. 
The trail from Marsh pass to the great cliff- dwellings, although now 
passable only on horseback, could be made into a wagon road at 
small expense. 

The nature of the cliffs in which the ruins of the Navaho Monument 
are situated favored the construction of cliff-dwellings rather than of 
open pueblos in this region. These cliffs are full of caverns, large 
and small, presenting much the same condition as tlie cliffs of the red 
sandstone elsewhere in the Southwest, as the Mesa Verde, Canyon de 
Chelly, the Red Rocks south of Flagstaff, and other sections where 
caverns abound. Fragments of fallen rocks present good plane sur- 
faces for walls of masonry, and there is abundant clay for plastering. 
Trees suitable for rafters and beams are not wanting. In short, all 
conditions are favorable for stone and adobe houses in the cliffs. The 
neighboring Sethlagini mesa is of different geological formation; in it 
are no caverns, the mesa top is broad, and ruins thereon are necessarily 

a The finder was Mr. E. B. Wallace. This specimen was owned at one time by Mr. J. T. Zeller, an 
architect of St. Louis. The writer has been informed that Mr, Zeller sold the cradle and that it is now 
in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. 

b A common feature of stone mauls is a raised ferrule above and one below the groove to which the 
handle is attached. , 

c These sticks, or ''crooks " (gnela), found on the Antelope altar in the Walpi Snake ceremony are reported 
to have been brought to Walpi from Tok(5nabi. 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 31 

open pueblos. The effect of difference in geological structure is 
nowhere more evident than in these adjacent formations. 

If environment has had so marked an influence on the character 
of building, we can readily see how it has affected arts and crafts. 
We can hardly imagine a people living any length of time in this re- 
gion without being mentally influenced by the precipitous cliffs that 
rise on all sides. The summits of these heights are eroded into fantastic 
shapes resembling animals or grotesque human forms. The constant 
presence of these marvelous forms, of awe-inspiring size and weird 
appearance, exerted a profound influence on the supernatural ideas 
of the inhabitants. Here were born many conceptions of earth gods 
and the like, survivals of which still remain among the ITopi. 

As a rule the clift'-houses are not situated in sight of the main 
stream, but are hidden aw^ay in secluded side canyons, approached 
by narrow entrances, their sites having been determined no doubt 
by the position of the springs with their constant water supply. 

Almost every side canyon, even in a dry season, has its spring of 
water which, trickling out of the rocks, follows the canyon bed until 
it is finally drunk up by the thirsty sands. Often water seeps out of a 
soft stratum of rock in the cave itself, where it was gathered in arti- 
ficial reservoirs that in ancient times furnished an adequate supply for 
the inhabitants. One feature of these side canyons is that they enlarge 
into basins surrounded on all sides by lofty cliffs. Many of these 
basins are so hidden that they can be discovered only by following 
dry stream-beds from their junction with the creeks. How many of 
these basins are still undiscovered no one can yet tell. In these 
basins now covered with, bushes the aboriginal farms w^ere probably 
situated. 

As the width of the valley of Laguna creek from Marsh pass to the 
point where the stream receives its largest branches on the left bank 
varies, the amount of arable land is greater in some places than in 
others. In stretches where the stream almost washes the bases of 
the ruins there could have been no extensive farming lands. The 
creek meanders through the soft clay and sand which fill the valley 
to the depth of many feet, forming treacherous banks that are con- 
tinually falling and changing the course of the stream, so it is quite 
possible that the present configuration of the valley is very different 
from what it was when the cliff-dwellings were inhabited. If the 
occupants once had farms within its limits all traces of them would 
have long since been obliterated. Although too much credence 
should not be given to Navaho traditions, it is not unreasonable to 
believe that in one particular at least they are correct. These state 
that, before the introduction of sheep, grass was much higher in the 
level part of the valley than at present, and formerly game (at least 
the mountain sheep and the antelope) may have been more abun- 



32 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN' ETHNOLOGY . [bull. 50 

dant. This condition would have exerted a marked influence on the 
hfe of the chff-dwellers. Pictographs show that the ancient people, 
either here or in their former homes, w^ere famihar with these ani- 
mals, and various objects of bone and horn are significant in this 
connection. 

The Navaho National Monument (see sketch map, pi. 22) con- 
tains two kinds of ruins, '^ cliff-dwellings and pueblos. Most of the 
latter are situated on promontories or on low hills. The structural 
features of the cliff-dwellings are characteristic, their walls being con- 
structed of stone or adobe built against, rarely free from, vertical 
faces of the cliff. 

There are two types of kivas, one circular and subterranean, aUied 
to those of the Mesa Verde, the other rectangular, above ground, 
entered from the sides. 

The masonry of these northern ruins is crude, resembhng that 
of modern Walpi. The component stones are neither dressed nor 
smoothed, but the walls are sometimes plastered. There is a great 
similarity in architecture. No round towers ^ relieve the monotony or 
impart picturesqueness to the buildings. The walls of ruined pueblos 
in this region and the ceramic remains closely resemble those at 
Black Falls on the Little Colorado. A prominent feature of the 
walls is a jacal construction in which the mud is plastered on wattling 
between upright poles. The ends of many of these supports project 
high above the ground, constituting a characteristic feature of the 
ruins. This method of wall construction is unknown at Black Falls 
or at Walpi, but survives in modified form in one or more Oraibi 
kivas and in one at least of the Mesa Verde ruins. ^ It has been 
described by Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff as common to several ruins in the 
Canyon de Chelly. 

The key to the culture of the people from which the cliff-dweller 
culture was derived is probably the kiva, which furnishes also a good 
basis for the classification of the Pueblos and cliff-dwellers into sub- 
ordinate groups. 

Architecturally the kiva reached its highest development in the 
Mesa Verde region, where it is a circular subterranean room with 
pilasters and banquettes, ventilators and deflectors, fireplaces and 
ceremonial openings, the features of which have been described else- 
where. As we follow the San Juan down to its junction with the 
Colorado we find a gradual simplification of the circular type of 

a The writer was not able to determine the exact site of the traditional Tok<1nabi, but believes one is 
justified in considering the ruins visited to be prehistoric houses of the Snake (Flute), Horn, and other Hopi 
clans whose descendants now live in Walpi. 

b While circular subterranean kivas are found in some of the ruins, none of these have the six pilasters 
so common higher up on the San Juan, nor have these rooms ventilators like those of Spruce-tree House. 
Some of the ruins have rectangular kivas, above ground, entered from one side. 

c The best example of walls of this kind is found in an undescribed cliff-ruin in the canyon southwest 
of Cliff Palace. 



FEWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 33 

kiva by the elimination of pilasters, ventilators, and other features, 
the round kiva being here represented by rooms in which almost 
the only architectural feature remaining is the large banquette. 
The question naturally arising in this connection is, whether the 
circular kiva in the eastern region is a development of that simpler 
form existing in the western or whether the latter is a degenerate 
form of the eastern. In other words, does the evidence show that 
this particular modification spread from the east down the San Juan 
or from the west up the river to the east ? In this connection it may 
be urged that originally the form of circular kiva lacking pilasters 
extended along the entire course of the San Juan and that the kivas 
of the Mesa Verde became highly speciahzed forms in which pilasters 
were developed, while those lower down the river remained the same. 
We can not defmitely answer either of these questions, but taken with 
other evidence it would seem that the circular form of kiva originated 
in the eastern section and gradually extended westward. 

The modern Hopi rectangular form of ceremonial room situated 
underground seems in some instances to have derived certain fea- 
tures from the circular subterranean kiva. 

The chief kiva at Walpi, that used by the Snake fraternity, is rec- 
tangular and subterranean, while that used by the Flute priests, which 
is practically a ceremonial room, is a chamber entered by a side door- 
way. It is suggested that the Snake kiva at Walpi was derived from 
the circular subterranean kiva of Tokonabi, the former home of the 
Snake clan in northern Arizona, and that the Flute chamber was 
developed from the rectangular rooms in the same ruins. The old 
question, so often considered by Southwestern archeologists, whether 
the circular subterranean kiva was derived from the rectangular or 
vice versa, seems to the writer to be somewhat modified by the fact 
that ceremonial rooms of both forms exist side by side in many 
ancient cliff-dwellings. From circular subterranean kivas in some 
instances developed square kivas, but the latter are sometimes the 
direct development of square rooms; the determination of the original 
form can best result from a study of clans and their migrations.'^ 

Naturally the questions one asks in regard to these ruins are: 
Why did the inhabitants build in these cliffs ? Who were the ancient 
inhabitants ? When were these dwellings inhabited and deserted ? 

It is commonly believed that the caves were chosen for habitations 
because they could be better defended than villages in the open. 
This is a good answer to the first question, so far as it goes, although 
somewhat imperfect. The ancients chose this region for their homes 

a It is generally the custom to speak of the rectangular subterranean rooms of Walpi as kivas, while the 
square or rectangular rooms above ground, in which equally secret rites are performed, are not so desig- 
nated. Both types are ceremonial rooms, but for those not subterranean the term kihu (clan ceremonial 
room), instead of kiva, is appropriate. 



34 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 50 

on account of the constant water supply in the creek and the patches 
of land in the valley that could be cultivated. This was a desirable 
place for their farms. Had there been no caves in the cliffs they 
would probably have built habitations in the open plain below. 
They may have been harassed by marauders, but it must be borne 
in mind that their enemies did not come in great numbers at any one 
time. Defense was not the primary motive that led the sedentary 
people of this canyon to utilize the caverns for shelter. Again, the 
inroads of enemies never led to the abandonment of these great cliff- 
houses, if we can impute valor in any appreciable degree to the 
inhabitants. Fancy, for instance, the difficulty, or rather improba- 
bility, of a number of nomadic warriors great enough to drive out the 
population of Kitsiel, making their way up Cataract canyon and 
besieging the pueblo. Such an approach would have been impos- 
sible. Marauders might have raided the Kitsiel cornfields, but they 
could not have dislodged the inhabitants. Even if they had suc- 
ceeded in capturing one house but little would have been gained, as 
it was a custom of the Pueblos to keep enough food in store to last more 
than a year. In this connection the question is pertinent. While hos- 
tiles were besieging Kitsiel how could they subsist during any length 
of time? Only with the utmost difficulty, even with aid of ropes 
and ladders, can one now gain access to some of these ruins. How 
could marauding parties have entered them if the inhabitants were 
hostile ? The cliff-dwellings were constructed partly for defense, but 
mainly for the shelter afforded by the overhanging cliff, and the 
cause of their desertion was not due so much to predatory enemies as 
failure of crops or the disappearance of the water supply. 

The writer does not regard these ruins as of great antiquity; some 
of the evidence indicates that they are of later time. Features in 
their architecture show resemblances derived from other regions. 
The Navaho ascribe the buildings to ancient people and say that the 
ruined houses existed before tlieir own advent in the country, but 
this was not necessarily long ago. Such evidence as has been 
gathered supports Hopi legends that the inhabitants were ancient 
Hopi belonging to the Flute, Horn, and Snake families. 

There is no evidence that cliff-house architecture developed in 
these canyons, and rude structures older than these have been 
found in this region. Whoever the builders of these structures were, 
they brought their craft with them. The adoption of the deflector 
in the rectangular ceremonial rooms called kihus implies the deriva- 
tion of these rooms from circular kivas, and all indications are that 
the ancient inhabitants came from higher up San Juan river. 

Many of the ruins in Canyon de Chelly situated east of Laguna 
creek show marked evidence of being modern, and they in turn are 
not so old as those of the Mesa Verde. If the ruins become older as- 



BUREAU OF /j 
III* 



BAROHO/l 
NATUFiA. 



NAVAHL 



07 



V>^ASL. 



36 



3o I 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN I 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 




BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 18 




a. LARGE BLACK-AND-WHITE VASE 
Cat. No. 257774. Height, 17 inches. 



■ 


^^*^^^^^^^^^^^' --^^ :v-^**5^ 




n 













&. LARGE VASE WITH HANDLE 
Cat. No. 257787. Height, Si inches. 

POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 19 




CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE-FRONT 

Dimensions: length, 22 inches; breadth, 9 inches; diameter, 6 inches. 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 20 




CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE-REAR 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



BULLETIN 50 PLATE 21 




CLIFF-DWELLERS CRADLE-SIDE 



FBWKES] NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 35 

we go up the river the conclusion is logical that the migration of the 
San Juan culture was down the river from east to west, rather than 
in the opposite direction. The scanty traditions known to the 
author support the belief in a migration from east to west, although 
there were exceptional instances of clan movements in the opposite 
direction. The general trend of migration would indicate that the 
ancestral home of the Snake and Flute people was in Colorado and 
New Mexico. 

It is evident from the facts here recorded that the ruins in the 
Navaho National Monument contain most important, most char- 
acteristic, and well-preserved prehistoric buildings, and that the 
problems they present are of a nature to arouse great interest in 
them. Having suffered comparatively little from vandalism, these 
are among the best-preserved monuments of the cliff-dwellers' cul- 
ture in our Southwest, and if properly excavated and repaired they 
would preserve most valuable data for the future student of prehis- 
toric man in North America. It is not necessary to preserve all the 
ruins within this area, but it would be well to explore the region 
and to locate the sites of the ruins that it contains. 

KECOMMENDATIONS 

The writer has the honor to recommend that one of the largest two 
cliff-dwellings in the Navaho National Monument, either Betatakin 
or Kitsiel, be excavated, repaired, and preserved as a "tjpe ruin" 
to illustrate the prehistoric culture of the aborigines of this section 
of Arizona ; also that this work be supplemented by excavation and 
repair of Inscription House, an ancient cliff-dwelling in West canyon. 

He also recommends that one or more of the ruins in West canyon 
be added to the Navaho National Monument and be permanently 
protected by the Government. 

o 



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